


Moments Building to a Family

by Ailelie



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Developing Relationship, F/M, M/M, Polyamory, soft
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-27
Updated: 2020-07-27
Packaged: 2021-03-06 06:15:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,129
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25558708
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ailelie/pseuds/Ailelie
Summary: A minor, innocent exchange between Fjord and Yeza leads to Fjord realizing his attractions and the Brenatto family happily welcoming Fjord in.
Relationships: Fjord/Nott | Veth Brenatto, Yeza Brenatto/Fjord, Yeza Brenatto/Nott | Veth Brenatto/Fjord
Comments: 6
Kudos: 38





	Moments Building to a Family

“She’s amazing, isn’t she?”

Fjord jumps. Yeza gives him a knowing smile and looks down into the courtyard where Veth is teaching Luc how to use a crossbow.

“Yes,” Fjord says gruffly, once he realizes he’s let the silence go on too long. “She is.”

–

Fjord stands in front of the Lavish Chateau, his stomach a mild grumble. Beau left earlier with Yasha. Jester was running errands for her mother and Caleb, who once again needed paper, had gone with her. Caduceus was talking with his family 25 words at a time. 

The door opens behind him; Luc is extolling the virtues of some eatery.

“Considering a new career as bouncer?” Veth asks.

“Thinking about where I want to go,” he replies as his stomach rumbles.

“You should come with us,” Yeza says. When Fjord looks down at him, he looks aside to Luc. “Why don’t you tell Fjord about the Clove and Star?”

Luc’s eyes widen and he launches into an extremely enthusiastic spiel about his favorite eatery ever. They’re several blocks from the Lavish Chateau before Fjord realizes they’ve been walking. 

“I don’t want to intrude on your family time.”

“But you have to come!” Luc says, grabbing one of his hands with both of his and pulling Fjord along. 

“You’re not intruding,” Veth adds. 

Against his better judgment, Fjord allows himself to be led.

–

They’re taking a rest for their spellcasters. Fjord examines the cavern around them and finds what looks like a _cabinet_ hidden in the stone. He knows he should be resting and healing, but the adrenaline of the fight is still pulsing through him. He quietly calls Veth over. 

“I’m not hallucinating, right?” 

“No, I see it, too. I’ll check for traps.”

The cabinet is _very_ trapped, but Veth disables each easily. She’d worried about losing some of her skills when she returned to her true form, but her fingers are still as nimble. He should tell Yeza, he thinks. He should appreciate how easily each trap falls to pieces under her clever manipulation.

The lock clicks. The cabinet opens as if on oiled hinges. Inside is a small statue placed on a depressed square. Similar squares are carved into the stone on either side. 

Fjord examines the squares over Veth’s shoulder, one hand braced on the cavern wall above. He is hyper aware of her too-close warmth and the slight scent of her hair (a scented powder Yeza made for her, he knows, to help keep her hair clean without having bathe, for those days when a bath is too far away or when Veth’s fears are too close to ignore).

Veth looks up at him with a wild grin. “Should we see what happens if we move it?”

This is a bad idea, he thinks, as he agrees, but it feels like the safer option compared to the other wildly impulsive thought that was flitting through.

Lifting the statue fills the chamber with sleeping gas. Placing it to the rightmost square opens a secret passage.

He carries Veth when she passes out and resolves _not_ to tell Yeza this part.

–

They’re at the Xhorhaus, Yeza and Luc included. Yeza needed the laboratory; it has equipment he’s been unable to borrow in Nicodranas. Luc wanted to go somewhere new. Xhorhas isn’t the _safest_ , but it is known. When Yeza asks Veth to help him in the lab, Luc turns to Fjord and asks if he can go explore with him. 

Yeza and Veth chide him lightly and suggest checking out the tree instead, but Fjord surprises himself by speaking up and saying he’d wanted to go buy some things and he didn’t mind if Luc came along.

Luc cheers and his parents relent. 

Fjord and Luc accidentally stumble their way to an arts fair. It isn’t anything like Fjord expected from the Kryn, and he winces internally at that realization. The area is more crowded, so he pulls Luc up into his arms as they walk through.

“Those are pretty,” Luc says pointing to a booth where a sleek awakened panther is etching designs onto glass with her claws. Among the various bits of glass is a bronze framed bit of green dangling from a bronze chain.

_You’ll always be green to me._

He’s approached the booth before he has a chance to talk himself out of what he’s doing.

“Can you do words as well?” he asks once the panther has greeted them.

“I can.”

“I’d like that green pendant with the words ‘Team Green’ on it.”

The panther takes down the glass and begins to etch.

“That is _so cool,_ ”Luc says, and Fjord thinks _shit_. This is weird. 

“Do you have more of that green glass?” he asks, paying for the pendant.

“I do.”

“I need two more with the same inscription, please.”

He loops one of the three necklaces over Luc’s head as they return to the Xhorhaus. He shoves the other two at Veth and Yeza. Over the walk home, he realizes that he just bought gifts for the Brenattos for _no reason._ He half-wishes he could bury the necklaces somewhere and forget them, but he knows Luc would say something. Luc keeps playing with his pendant, holding it up to one eye and laughing at how it turns the world green. 

When they return to the house, Fjord shoves the pendants at Veth and Yeza and tries to ignore the heat on his cheeks and ears.

Veth smiles at the message on her pendant and slips it on. 

“So we’re Team Green, then?” Yeza asks, slipping his on as well. All three are wearing the green pendants now and Fjord’s mind blanks.

This is not his family. He has to go. He lets out a strangled, “Yep!” And runs away upstairs to his room.

–

Yeza finds him a day or so later attempting to meditate under Caduceus’ tree while Caduceus cooks dinner downstairs. The ‘Team Green’ pendant is still around his neck and the sight of it makes Fjord’s breath catch.

“There’s no easy way to say this, so I’ll just be blunt. I don’t mind.”

“What?” Fjord interrupts.

Yeza gives him a too kind smile. “I love Veth deeply, and I think you might be starting to as well.”

“What? No–” Fjord coughs, hoping to remove the panicked high pitch from his voice. “No,” he said at a lower register. “Veth is– is–” 

He has no idea how to finish that sentence.

“I don’t mind,” Yeza says again. “In fact, I feel better for it. All of these adventures are so dangerous, I’d like to know that someone is looking out for her, not just during the battles. She deserves to be loved, don’t you think?”

All Fjord can think is _how are you still so_ good. Yeza had been used by the Empire. Imprisoned by the Dynasty. Had lost his wife, then regained her as a goblin. He supported Veth’s adventures and never made her feel guilty for wanting them. 

It is only when he notices Yeza blushing that Fjord realizes he’s been saying all of this out loud. His own cheeks warming, he asks again, “How are you so good?”

The lights in the tree catch the glass of Yeza’s pendant, scattering bits of green over Yeza’s clothing and face.

Fjord reaches to touch one of the shards of light before he can think better of it. Yeza doesn’t move, his eyes wide behind his glasses. His skin is warm. Fjord cups his cheek and is surprised at how soft his beard is. He must make something for it.

“Perhaps,” Yeza says with a strange, but not displeased expression, “we should talk with Veth.”

Fjord startles and drops his hand. He runs.

–

They’re traveling. Yeza and Luc are back safe at the Lavish Chateau.

Veth keeps giving him strange looks. Fjord refuses to engage.

But she’s wearing the Team Green necklace and not even the threat of U’katoa could chill the warmth that suffuses him each time he notices it.

Then Veth volunteers to take a watch with him and he can’t run away.

“I need your help to convince Yeza to buy a house in Nicodranas,” she says, sitting beside him.

Fjord blinks; this is not the topic he’d been expecting or dreading. “Yeza doesn’t want a house?”

“He wants to return to Felderwin eventually. So do I, but until then, I think a house is better than staying at a hotel. Don’t you agree?”

“I think this is a discussion for you and Yeza. I don’t think my opinion matters much here.”

“It could,” Veth says. “Yeza told me about your conversation. Is that something you want?”

“I–” He’s forgotten words. Veth is staring at him. His sword is the only light while their friends sleep. It is too intimate, he thinks, but then Veth is standing.

And then she is looking down at him. The tattoos around her eyes glitter beautifully. 

And then she is touching him. Her thumbs traces along the bottom edge of his lips. He wets his lips; the tip of his tongue brushes the edge of her thumb.

And Fjord has never been one to restrain his impulses for too long. He pushes up and kisses her. 

When they part for breath, Veth rests her forehead against his. “Now, that wasn’t so bad, was it?”

He laughs, too full of relief and pleasure to stop.

Veth kisses him again.

–

They try to keep it hidden.

They fail miserably.

Jester sends a message to Yeza to let him know. A wicked smile steals over her face as she listens to Yeza’s reply.

“He’s totally into you guys,” she announces afterward. “I should draw him a picture.”

Fjord spends most of that adventure blushing.

–

When they return to Nicodranas, Yeza and Luc are waiting for them outside the tower. Veth spins Luc around in a hug and pulls Yeza in for a long kiss. Fjord can’t look away.

He hugs Yeza and whispers his thanks. Yeza kisses his cheek. Fjord pulls back, surprised. Yeza meets his gaze, a faint blush high on his cheeks and clear nerves tight around his eyes.

Fjord cannot bring himself to tease Yeza for his boldness. He kisses him. His only regret is when he hears the rest of the Mighty Nein cheering and making lewd noises around them. 

Yeza pulls back, but he’s smiling. “Dinner?”

Fjord agrees.

They talk over dinner and Fjord cannot remember the last time he has been this content. He has spent so much of his life chasing family.

The Mighty Nein are one kind of family.

The Brenattos could be another.

–

At night, alone, he thinks of them.

Veth matches his impulses. He’d forced himself to act responsibly and sure for so long, styling himself after Vandren. She lets him break free of that. And she makes him blush, just by being her wonderfully competent, devious self, by calling him “Captain” in that sly voice that she _knows_ affects him in ways he doesn’t want the rest of the Nein to figure out.

And then there’s Yeza who is kind without being a pushover, who is gentle and patient in ways Fjord hadn’t thought possible before meeting Caduceus and him. But then Fjord sees him in the laboratory and he realizes Yeza is just as creative and impulsive as Veth in his own ways. His brilliance as an alchemist is rooted in the risks he takes. He doesn’t understand what all Yeza is doing, but he recognizes Veth’s “Yes, it is a bad idea, but do it anyway” tone of voice.

And then brave, smart little Luc who never, ever doubts he is wanted and loved.

Fjord thinks he would wreck the world to keep the three of them whole and happy.

–

Yeza finds him watching the courtyard again. Luc has been improving and is eager to show off to his mother.

“We got you something,” Yeza says, handing him a folded kerchief. “Veth wanted to give it to you at dinner, tonight, but I thought you might like a bit more privacy at first.”

Fjord unfolds the cloth. Nestled within is a bronze chain and a yellow glass pendant. Etched on the pendant is the word, “Brennato.”

“You’re one of us now,” Yeza says, “if you want to be.”

Fjord pulls the pendant over his head and then tugs Yeza into a kiss. “I want,” he says. He feels like he might cry.

–

They never have a formal ceremony, but he and Veth do convince Yeza about the house.

It has a small yard for Luc to play in and for Fjord to set up a Wildmother shrine, a lab for Yeza and Veth, and two bedrooms, one with a very large bed.

It is home.

**Author's Note:**

> So I started shipping Fjord/Nott as a joke. But then, like, every few episodes something would happen (Fjord asking Veth to tell him again that she likes him, Team Green, Veth admiring Fjord's captain demeanor, etc) and then one morning I had an idea for drabble. I figured I'd write it up quickly before work...about 2,000 words later here we are. I love this little OT3 now and I genuinely hope others write fic for it.
> 
> If you want to know what Yeza was thinking throughout this fic, [I've a short not!fic on my tumblr](https://ailelie.tumblr.com/post/624806560701480960/glimpses-from-yeza) explaining.


End file.
